Uvaria
(from uva, a cluster of grapes; alluding to the fruits of some of the species). ORD. Anonaceae. A genus embracing about thirty-five species of stove, climbing or sarmentose shrubs or under-shrubs, found in tropical Africa and Asia. Flowers yellow, purple, or brown, hermaphrodite, terminal or leaf-opposed, rarely axillary; sepals three, often connate below, broad, valvate; petals six, imbricated in two rows, sometimes connate at base; stamens indefinite. Leaves alternate, entire, exstipulate. Several species formerly included here are now referred to other genera. U. Kirkii is a medium-sized under-shrub, and U. zeylanica a large, woody climber. Both thrive in a compost of sandy loam and peat. Cuttings of the ripened wood will root in sand, under a glass, in heat.
U. Kirkii (Kirk's). fl. 3in. in diameter, solitary, axillary and sub-terminal; petals pale, dirty straw-colour, suffused with verdigris-green. October. l. 1 1/2in. to 5in. long, the young ones elliptic-oblong, and very rusty beneath, the old ones oblong, obtuse or acute, glabrous beneath or with scattered hairs on the midrib; petioles very short. Branchlets ferruginously hairy. h. 3ft. to 4ft. Zanzibar, 1868. (B. M. 6006.) U. zeylanica (Cingalese). fl. dull red, solitary or twin, 1in. in diameter; peduncles 1/2in. long, tomentose. May. l. lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 2 1/2in. to 3 1/2in. long, dark shining green on the upper side, red or pale beneath. h. 20ft. Ceylon, &c., 1794.